Why did the Americans win the Revolutionary War?
1 Answer
Home field advantage!
Explanation:
It must be remember that every military force is an extension of a political system. This has always been true. That means, when a country goes to war, all decisions about the conduct of that war come from the warring country's politicians. In the case of the American Revolution, the British Army's politicians were a month away. What that means is: At the completion of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, it took two weeks for the news of those battles to get back to London and another two weeks for orders from the King and parliament to return to the British generals. That demonstrates the problem the British had with logistics from the very beginning.
The number of British troops in America did not rise for some time after the beginning of the revolution. Unlike today, however, the time between one battle and the next could usually be counted in weeks, and sometimes months. That, of course, worked to the favor of the British.
The entire revolution, however, was fought upon American soil and it is this fact my quip "home field advantage" comes from. The American soldiers, even as poorly trained and equipped as they were, were fighting for and on their own land. That meant the Americans had the logistical advantage. They new the land better than the British, they could call up additional troops on a day's notice, remember it would take the British at least 4 weeks from requesting additional troops to actually getting them.
But part of the problem was the methodology the British used in fighting battles, something they did not change until after the War of 1812. The British had always fought its opponents in open fields while facing one another. The Americans, on the other hand, from the very beginning, frequently engaged in a form of guerilla warfare. That is, they would fight briefly at one location before falling back to another and fighting again, and usually out of sight of the British troops. British officers noted this as a "barbaric" form of warfare which they openly denounced. They steadfastly belief right up to the end of hostilities in 1783 that they would ultimately win using their methods.
A great example of the American use of guerilla warfare occurred at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Americans fought from the high ground looking down upon the advancing British. After three charges the British finally gained the high ground only to find the Americans had pulled back to the next hill, which was actually Bunker Hill, the first hill being Breed's Hill. The Americans continued the fight from their but as they ran out of ammunition they simply picked up and left the battle. British to American casualties ran 10 - 1 in favor of the Americans. The war of attrition had begun.
This sort of fighting continued, for the most part, throughout the war and doomed the British to defeat.
